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Prior to 2024 the state of Wisconsin had never seen a tornado in the month of February.
Even in Kansas, tornadoes are quite rare during February, aligning with the broader pattern of tornado seasonality in the United States, where the majority of tornado activity occurs from early spring through summer.
The tornado in Southeast Wisconsin on February 8, 2024,
was caused by a supercell—a strong thunderstorm with a long-lasting rotating updraft. This storm system, which spawned Wisconsin’s first-ever recorded February tornado, was part of a broader severe weather event across the Upper Midwest. The National Weather Service confirmed multiple tornado sightings near and just south and west of Madison, including the cities of Albany in Green County, Evansville in Rock County, and a funnel cloud near Fort Atkinson in Jefferson County.
The atmospheric conditions leading up to this event included record-challenging warmth across the Midwest, with high temperatures well into the 50s and 60s ahead of a push of colder, more seasonable air from the northern Plains. The convergence of this colder air with the existing warm conditions helped to spawn showers and thunderstorms across eastern Iowa, much of Wisconsin, and northern Illinois.